Truss plates are generally employed to join planks of lumber that form floor and roof trusses used in residential housing. Truss plates typically comprise a backing plate and an array of sharp spike-like impaling members that extend outwardly from the backing plate. Adjacent planks of a truss with coplanar surfaces can be permanently joined by pounding or pressing the backing member of a truss plate so that its impaling members penetrate the planks.
Typically, the joints of a truss are not formed one at a time. Instead, all of the planks comprising the truss are arranged in the desired configuration on a large table or series of tables configured for truss construction. Truss plates are then placed at points of contact between two or more adjacent planks and are pounded with a single stroke of a mallet to set the planks temporarily. A mechanical roller or press is then applied to all of the planks comprising the truss, thereby pressing the impaling members of each truss plate completely into the adjacent planks to provide a secure and permanent joint therebetween. The truss is then inverted and the process is repeated on the opposing surfaces of the planks.
A particular house or building will usually require several trusses of identical configuration. To increase manufacturing efficiency, identical trusses are usually built in succession. As these trusses often have as many as 20 or 30 joints and require two truss plates per joint, line workers constructing the trusses should have many truss plates within easy reach to allow them to quickly position and set the plates prior to application of the roller or press. A convenient and accessible workspace on which to store the plates prior to use is the edge portion of the truss table itself. However, truss table rollers and presses are most commonly sized to extend the full width of the table in order to accommodate trusses of varying widths. As a result, the space on the truss table edge portion available to line workers for storage of truss plates is restricted in height to that residing below the elevation of the roller, which is typically about four inches above the table surface.
Because of this height restriction, line workers will often form the truss plates into cooperating pairs, or couplets, in which the impaling members of each of a pair of truss plates face and interpose with one another and the backing members of the pair are disposed in parallel relationship. The truss plates of a couplet are not permanently interconnected in any manner, but the positional interrelationship of the impaling members restricts lateral movement of the truss plates relative to one another, so the plates comprising a couplet tend to stay together. Couplets of truss plates can be neatly stacked along the edge portion of the truss table near the location of the joint they are to secure. Stacking the plates in couplets conserves space on the truss table edge portion, thus enabling the storage of more truss plates per unit area. Also, a couplet stack provides a predictable truss plate orientation for the line worker, who must handle these sharp items quickly without injury.
Truss plates are typically packaged in boxes or cartons in no order whatsoever; they are simply strewn haphazardly in their container. If the container is emptied or if it is somehow removed or destroyed, the truss plates spill and spread and can be quite hazardous until they are retrieved and restored. As a result, the truss plates are generally stored on-site in their packaging cartons until use.
Not surprisingly, removing sharp truss plates that have been packaged randomly in a box or carton, forming them into couplets, and stacking the couplets on a truss table is a tedious process. However, for improved efficiency and safety, many truss construction firms will form and stack couplets prior to truss construction despite the time and trouble doing so entails. The prior art is completely silent on packaging methods that address truss plate packaging.
Thus it is a first object of the present invention to provide a truss plate package which enables simple transfer of the truss plates from the package to a stack of couplets on a truss table.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a truss plate package from which truss plates will not spill or spread following removal of the enclosure.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a method of packaging truss plates that effects simple transfer of the truss plates contained therein to a stack of couplets.